Workshop - “Voters and Political Parties in Post-Communist Europe, 2018, Stockholm, Sweden

New Challenges and Opportunities

The political landscape of post-communist Europe has been marked by important transformations over the last decade both at institutional and individual levels. At institutional level, new political parties emerged and many adopted a populist rhetoric to meet and fuel the critical attitudes of citizens towards the political establishment. The rise and fall of populist parties not only increased the competitiveness of elections, but also determined mainstream parties to change their approach. Established political actors faced an important erosion of support, losing elections or not being able to join coalition governments as often as they used to. At individual level, a particular type of political leadership with authoritarian tendencies and nationalist discourse have strong appeals to the public in several countries. Citizens make extensive use of various ways to engage in politics. The relatively large number, especially when compared to the previous decades – of demonstrations, protests, petitions or citizen-driven referendums (bottom-up) is an accurate reflection of a greater appetite for involvement in the decision-making process.

To better understand the complexity of this picture, a close look at the challenges and opportunities provided by these recent transformations is necessary. Along these lines, this workshop aims to bring together researchers discussing developments in post-communist Europe and the Baltic states, with an emphasis on how political parties, leaders or voters face challenges and make use of existing opportunities. We encourage both single-case studies and comparative approaches.

Format

The workshop will be organized for two days (20 and 21 September) and will provide the space for an academic debate in which 17 scholars can present the most recent findings of their research. The workshop seeks to attract a mix of established scholars, early-career researchers and PhD students. To increase the exchange of ideas, each presenter will serve as discussant for another paper. Each presenter will be allocated 45 minutes: 20 minutes to present the paper, 10 minutes for the discussant and 15 minutes for general discussion.

 Call for papers

Planned outcomes, costs and application procedure:

Depending on the homogeneity of the papers, the organizers plan a special issue in a peer-reviewed journal or an edited book with an important publisher.

There is no participation fee. The organizers will cover the accommodation costs and meals for all participants. Accommodation will be paid for two nights (19 and 20 September) and the participants will cover any supplementary nights. Participants should cover their own travel costs.

Authors should download and fill in the application form and submit it to olena.podolian@sh.se  until 5 July 2018 (applications received after deadline will not be reviewed). The organizers will inform the participants about the outcome of the selection process by 15 July.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

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